Downtown Salt Lake City was transformed from a conservative capital Friday night into something resembling party central, with revelers carrying open containers of alcohol in the streets.
Merrymakers staggered through the streets into Saturday morning, shouting "U-S-A." One group paused at a building on the corner of Main Street and 200 South, ripping the temporary decorations off the building and tossing them on the sidewalk with a cheer.
Earlier, before the clock struck midnight, the streets were packed to a volume rarely seen in Salt Lake City. Many in the crowd walked the streets with open containers of beer and other alcoholic beverages ? a violation of Utah law.
The city also has strict private-club laws that forbid taking open containers into a bar and force patrons to pay a fee to enter bars that sell high alcohol-content beer, wine or liquor.
At Club Xscape, club owner RB Edgar said his employees noticed the proliferation of open containers on the downtown streets. One of his staff decided to test the waters, taking an open bottle of beer onto the streets. While holding the bottle, he approached a police officer.
"He actually talked to a cop and the cop said he didn't care," Edgar said.
Sgt. Fred Louis, spokesman for the Salt Lake Police Department, said during the Olympics police might be more likely to look the other way.
"There's a lot of venues downtown where there's drinking, and some of those people are going to walk onto the streets," he said. "We're not looking to make any mass arrests for open containers."
The prevalence of open containers forced Port O' Call bar manager Deno Dakis to put a garbage can outside his door so people could dump their drinks before entering the bar.
The club also resorted to frisking people because several patrons attempted to sneak in open containers underneath their winter clothing.
Then there were others who were trying to take drinks outside with them. Most were foreigners or visitors unaccustomed to Utah's liquor laws.
"They didn't understand that part of it," Dakis said.
At the Dead Goat Saloon, owner Daniel Darger's staff was on the lookout for open containers.
"We have a well-trained staff," Darger said. "We even make you check bottled water at the door."
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com